Information about Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Panel

Please note the agenda
for each meeting will be published at least 6 working
days before the date of each meeting.

Purpose of
Panel

The
Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 introduced
significant changes in police governance and accountability, in
particular replacing the Police Authorities with directly elected
Police and Crime Commissioners (Commissioners).

The
public accountability for the delivery and performance of the
police service within each force area will be placed into the hands
of the commissioner on behalf of their electorate. The commissioner
will draw on their mandate to set and shape the strategic
objectives of their force area in consultation with the chief
constable. The commissioner will be accountable to their
electorate; the chief constable will be accountable to the
commissioner.

The
Act also requires the local authorities in each police force area
to establish a police and crime panel (panel), as a joint
committee, primarily to scrutinise the commissioner. The Act also
prescribes many of the arrangements with regard to the panel and
the way in which it conducts its business.

According to the Home Office, “Panels are not a
replacement for the police authority. They will fulfil an important
role in scrutinising the commissioner but we need to be clear that
this reform is about reconnecting the police and the people. This
will be achieved through a directly elected police and crime
commissioner not through the police and crime panel. The panel will
have an important scrutiny role in relation to the commissioner,
however it is the commissioner who is taking on the role of the
police authority and who the public will hold to account for the
performance of their force.”

Peterborough City Council is
the host Authority for the Cambridgeshire Panel. Please send any queries for the Panel to jane.webb@peterborough.gov.uk
in the first instance.

For any queries for the Police
and Crime Commissioner or his deputy, please see the website
http://www.cambridgeshire-pcc.gov.uk/
which contains the following contact details for his
office: